Gender stereotyping is rife in commercial and mainstream media, but what is the extent of gendered thinking and expression in different forms of community media, be it print, radio, TV or internet? Differently from mainstream media, community media has a mandate to reflect community and be owned by community, to promote and encourage media development, transformation and diversity. Community media has an inherent link to policy and the state.

The essence of community-based video can be found in the words of a woman from a rural community who, upon viewing a video created by other members of the community, comments: ‘…it is easy to understand a thing if it means you sit with him/her and talk about the matter… rather than standing in front of them.’

A distinguishing feature of the community broadcast sector is its emphasis on community engagement and empowerment. The World Association of the Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) makes clear that community radio is not about doing something for the community but about the community doing something for itself – that is, owning and controlling its own means of communication.

A participatory media initiative for Ugandan women affected by obstetric fistula
Over the past 15 years, practitioners of digital storytelling around the world have refined their methods for facilitating the production of short, first-person videos that document a wide range of culturally and historically embedded lived experiences (Lambert, 2002; Burgess, 2006). While the terms ‘digital storytelling’ and ‘digital story’ are used to refer to an array of widely divergent media practices and products, they originated in the early 1990s at the US-based Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS).

In the past decade, Caracas’ community media outlets have expanded from informal groups of activists organising and documenting everyday life in their impoverished neighbourhoods to licensed broadcasters who use state funds to train and equip their neighbours to be radio and television producers.

For almost 50 years, Bihar, one of the most underdeveloped states of India, witnessed poor governance, among other reasons due to administrative corruption, patriarchal society and the caste system. Though some Indian states adopted local self governance in the form of panchayats immediately after independence, Bihar had its first local level elections only in 1978 and its second election only in 2006.

In 1999, when the first multi-donor sponsored Multipurpose Community Telecentre1 in Uganda was launched in the remote village of Nakaseke, many believed that this move heralded new beginnings for such an isolated and marginalised community. Unlike in the past where media were urban-based, elitist, expert-tailored, non-participatory and alien content generated, the local people in this village believed they would have access to various media for the first time (including telephones, internet, fax, library and radio).

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On 1 January 1994 in the south-eastern Mexican state of Chiapas, a group of Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolabal, Chol and Mame indigenes declared war against the Mexican State and army. They called themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN – initials in Spanish). In the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, a document read by Commander Felipe in the occupied city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, they declared:

Participatory video as a tool for feminist research
This briefing argues for participatory video as a possible methodological approach to a specific type of study in the area of film and media. The argument emerges out of two research endeavours: a Masters study completed in 2004 and a PhD study currently in progress. The briefing therefore provides a self-reflexive discussion of the transition between the two research efforts, i.e. the production of a short film as a ‘test’ study that drew on the findings of the Masters, and as a preliminary study that would inform the PhD.

The phenomenon of women-owned media is not a new one. Women’s radio stations and programming within community radio have existed since 1969 when New York City-based community radio station WBAI introduced feminist programming (Steiner, 1992). Other forms of early programmes and stations include RadiOrakel (99.3 FM) in Norway, started in 1982, Radio Tierra (95.1 FM) in Chile and Radio Pirate Woman (102 MHz FM), started in 1987 in Ireland (Mitchell, 1998). There is also Mama FM, which was the very first of its kind in Uganda and on the African continent.

The issue of (re)creating gender identities in community media is fraught with difficulty as societies attempt to (re)define their identities. In Africa, gender identities remain contested on two levels of engagement, namely grassroots and national level. Firstly, at grassroots level, there are interest groups that compete with each other, using community media to gain political and social influence. Secondly, mainstream media manipulate communities. And thirdly, it is the intention of some governments to create a centripetal position that calls for a unified homogenous identity of its population reflected in state-controlled media.

In South Africa, gender inequality and HIV/AIDS continue to impede child development in dramatic ways. The rise of HIV has increased the risk to children who may already be exposed to violence and has heightened their vulnerability to illness, malnutrition, abuse and neglect.

Over the last 150 to 200 years, we have seen women struggling for an escape from prescriptive societal norms, which have given rise to various inaccurate perceptions and unjust practices, frustrating the equity of women’s places within their communities.

Agenda celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007 – a milestone that heralds the beginning of a new phase of audience engagement, organisation maturity and a serious commitment to increasing the quality and impact of our work. We therefore take the liberty of introducing to our readers the broader scale of our work which includes: